Mind Tricks Read Online Free

So…have any of your memories come back?”
Her gaze slid away as she spoke.
    Ah. Rumor was moving faster than
he’d expected. “Nope. Nothing. And it’s pretty important that they do—you
know?”
    Emma bit her lip, apparently
debating whether to admit that she knew of his situation. “My assistant told me
that a coworker of yours was killed last night. I’m sorry.”
    Done with the niceties, she gave
him a nod of farewell and tried to circle around him, but Jake sidestepped to
intercept her.
    “Me, too. She was a friend as well
as a coworker. Problem is, the police seem to believe that I killed her, but I
can’t remember almost anything of last night.”
    Pushed by an evil impulse, he
deliberately took a stride closer to Emma. Her eyes widened and her chin came
up, but she didn’t move back. Gutsy.
    “I’m afraid I still can’t help
you,” she told him. “What I do with animals doesn’t work on people.”
    “What do you do with animals?”
    “It’s a little hard to explain.”
    Uh-huh. That was convenient.
    She hadn’t finished, though. “It
basically involves tapping into the animal’s thoughts and emotions, which can
be very chaotic. The trick is translating their emotions into language the
pet’s owner will understand. And animals are like people. They can get upset by
things that aren’t really threatening. For instance, a dog may work himself
into a frenzy when a much smaller dog walks past his yard. And a person may
jump up on a chair to escape a tiny spider. Not logical reactions, but deep and
powerful reactions nonetheless. Then the owner and I discuss how to address
these issues so that the pet is happier.” She stopped and flushed. “Sorry. You
probably didn’t need to know all that.”
    “Well, it’s fascinating.” Like the
Loch Ness monster, if you believed in that. Which he didn’t. “I think when we
met, you told me that you heal animals, too.” Somehow he managed to keep any
doubt out of his voice.
    Why was he still talking to her
about this? He needed to get to the office, call his parents, call his lawyer
again to see if he’d heard anything new, maybe call the hypnotherapist, if
Mickey found one for him. At eight o’clock he’d go home and get some sleep. Get lots of sleep. He felt like a newly
minted zombie. Probably looked and smelled like one too, without a shave and a
shower this morning, though he’d managed to change into clean clothes.
    At his comment about healing, she
somehow lit up from within. “That’s the best part: seeing an animal who was
hurting leave my house with much less pain.”
    “And how do you do that?”
    “Have you heard of healing touch,
Reiki, or qigong? Each involves the manipulation of energy areas within the
body to release tension and pain. That’s how I usually use it. It can also work
with animals who are too scared to let me into their emotions. It relaxes the
animal enough so it opens its mind to me.”
    Wait a second. “You manipulate body
energy to open up thoughts?”
    “Yes, essentially.”
    “Could you do that to me?”
    She blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
    He couldn’t believe he was asking
her this, much less repeating his question, but if he was ready to consult a
hypnotherapist, why not let Emma do her energy manipulation thing to him, too?
If she failed, as he pretty much expected she would, at least he’d be confirmed
in his opinion of her bogusness. If she didn’t fail… He forced himself to shove
down a rising bubble of hope. It couldn’t be this easy. And anyway, she was a
fraud. Still, he’d be an idiot to ignore the possibility that she might manage
to get something right by accident.
    “Could you do that energy releasing
thing to me?” He tried to smile. “After all, I have some thoughts I need to
open up.”
     
    • •
     
    This time Emma did step back. She’d
had to make a conscious effort not to earlier, when he’d halfheartedly tried to
scare her, but she couldn’t stop herself now from